2008 Woodie Awards
Faulty Deception
'Stranger' Drowns in Mystery
By Andrew Aschenbrenner
4/11/07 - Entertainment
Hollywood of late has fallen in love with the deceptive psycho-thriller, for better or for worse. The newest attempt at success in the category, Universal Pictures' Perfect Stranger, promises an intense ride. What it delivers is a mediocre, directionless film that is studded with comments that, while designed to elicit fascination or intrigue, fall flat.
Halle Berry stars as Rowena Price, an investigative reporter with a male pen name and an unquenchable desire for dirt. The role of Price gives Berry a chance to perform well, but her performance is hobbled by the clumsy script and useless plot misdirection.
Alongside a great actor like Bruce Willis, she holds her own, but Willis' Harrison Hill and Giovanni Ribisi's Miles Haley keep the movie afloat. Berry's character lacks the depth to make Perfect Stranger stand out. Even quotes like "Secrets are great, unless you get caught" fail to register.
After having her scandal-breaking story on a Senator's hypocrisy and inappropriate relationship with an intern cut because of political pressure, Rowena Price and her associate Miles go after advertising executive Harrison Hill. Price becomes suspicious of Hill after her friend Grace, who gave her evidence of the married Hill's womanizing, is murdered.
As the movie heats up, Price assumes a second identity and then a third in order to go after Hill. She becomes Katherine Pogue, a temp at Hill's ad agency H2A, and Veronica, an online identity used to flirt with Hill. She presses her luck, switching identities, gathering information, and misleading those around her with incredible ease. With the help of tech-savvy Miles, Rowena gets close to Hill.
As more is found out about the increasingly complicated Price, the movie runs in multiple directions, to intriguing but also complicating effect. Perfect Stranger attempts to manufacture a logically disconnected story by leading in various directions and proceeding to twist the conception of truth and lies.
It's an interesting way of looking at behavior and how both past events and the public and private faces of people affect their actions, but ultimately it fails to craft enough suspense. If you like psychological thrillers, it might be worth seeing in theaters; otherwise, rent it. Perfect Stranger arrives in theaters everywhere Friday April 13th.
Halle Berry stars as Rowena Price, an investigative reporter with a male pen name and an unquenchable desire for dirt. The role of Price gives Berry a chance to perform well, but her performance is hobbled by the clumsy script and useless plot misdirection.
Alongside a great actor like Bruce Willis, she holds her own, but Willis' Harrison Hill and Giovanni Ribisi's Miles Haley keep the movie afloat. Berry's character lacks the depth to make Perfect Stranger stand out. Even quotes like "Secrets are great, unless you get caught" fail to register.
After having her scandal-breaking story on a Senator's hypocrisy and inappropriate relationship with an intern cut because of political pressure, Rowena Price and her associate Miles go after advertising executive Harrison Hill. Price becomes suspicious of Hill after her friend Grace, who gave her evidence of the married Hill's womanizing, is murdered.
As the movie heats up, Price assumes a second identity and then a third in order to go after Hill. She becomes Katherine Pogue, a temp at Hill's ad agency H2A, and Veronica, an online identity used to flirt with Hill. She presses her luck, switching identities, gathering information, and misleading those around her with incredible ease. With the help of tech-savvy Miles, Rowena gets close to Hill.
As more is found out about the increasingly complicated Price, the movie runs in multiple directions, to intriguing but also complicating effect. Perfect Stranger attempts to manufacture a logically disconnected story by leading in various directions and proceeding to twist the conception of truth and lies.
It's an interesting way of looking at behavior and how both past events and the public and private faces of people affect their actions, but ultimately it fails to craft enough suspense. If you like psychological thrillers, it might be worth seeing in theaters; otherwise, rent it. Perfect Stranger arrives in theaters everywhere Friday April 13th.
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